30 Creative Backyard Landscape Design Ideas

Create Privacy With Grasses

This cozy yet spacious seating area has plenty of privacy thanks to privacy fencing and some well-placed tall perennial grasses that also help absorb noise. The patio, which features a dining and seating area, is framed by a gravel-covered garden bed with a few plants that help to separate the space from the lawn.

Install a Retaining Wall

If your yard has steep levels or hills you may want to consider a retaining wall. This one has two levels around the seating area, with the lower one providing a space for seasonal plantings and a built in fireplace. The look comes together with a dramatic round metal pergola that supports the beautiful white wisteria vine (a plant that needs a strong structure away from the house, as its growth can become invasive over time). This pergola adds an airy, open feel to the solid retaining wall, balancing the angular walls with circular lines.

Simplify Your Approach

Landscaping need not be complicated or fussy. This simple design allows an interesting border to the lawn area with simple wooden posts laid in as borders. The gray fencing, gravel, lighting fixtures and planters accent the gray tones in the tree bark, and easy plants like clumping grasses and evergreen shrubs provide interest all season.

Add Interest to Paths

Lining a pathway with plants can be one of the more straightforward ways to start. Just be careful to not choose any plants that would grow in a way that made it difficult to use the path. The concrete path above allows plenty of room for walking or placing a chair to linger over the nearby vista. Planting perennials that bloom from spring through autumn makes this walkway a welcoming destination through three seasons.

Frame a Dining Nook

A few potted or climbing plants can go a long way to frame a small seating area. With minimal plants, decor can do the rest of the work. The all-weather rug transforms the stone patio beneath it, creating the feel of a small outdoor room, and the filigree metal table and chairs are accented by other metal decor and various objects made of natural materials in an attractive neutral palette.

Define Your Space with Structure

With a large backyard space, structural elements are key to defining the space and giving it a shape. Doing this first can help guide your landscaping choices. This yard is flanked by mature trees on its edge, and so a variety of smaller levels and contrasting shapes creates a pleasing and functional design. The garden shed with fenced in area is the focal point. The flagstone path provides graceful curves and the white stone carries on the color theme of the white fence posts and white painted trim on the shed. Finally, the curved shapes of the flower beds also define the walkway’s connection to the larger property.

Give It a Garden Theme

Sometimes you can tell where a gardener lives. This backyard is all about celebrating gardening, with many potted plants, vines with colorful flowers growing over fences and sheds, and comfy green chairs strategically placed to rest and enjoy the view of your accomplishments after a busy morning of gardening.

Try Open Air Fencing

Fences can be necessary and useful structures, but they need not always be opaque or thick for privacy. This open air fence allows plenty of sight lines throughout the garden, including views of the raised beds through the fence. The curved arbor over the gate could hold climbing roses or other vines. The strong structure of the fence, incorporated with the flagstone path, solidifies the location as a central focal point by the shed, and yet the whole area looks airy and inviting.

Go Big with Pavers

Installing a patio with pavers can be a lot of work and requires decisions about preparing the space, leveling, gravel or sand, etc. These large pavers simplify the logistics a bit, and the ground cover growing between them softens the look and breaks up the large expanses of white in this design. There are lots of options for ground cover too, including grasses, creeping sedum, and creeping thyme.

Create Green Curves

This simple backyard landscaping from Mindy Gayer Design Co. includes a large green lawn that hugs the curves of the backyard patio. Low slung shrubs around the edge of the home and in small groupings scattered from the patio to a small mulch filled island in the center of the lawn allow the architecture to take center stage and don’t compete with mature trees surrounding the property.

Savor a Sunken Patio

This seating area centers around a fire dish but the round structure could as easily be a table or water feature. The real star here is the sturdy rock wall surround built of natural granite blocks, and stairs leading down to the flagstone patio, creating a sunken room effect, with plenty of lush plantings at ground and wall level to add a dose of nature and privacy.

Try Mediterranean Style

This Southern California backyard from Mindy Gayer Design Co. has Mediterranean-inspired landscaping, with a minimalist approach to planting, a play of heights, and a rustic water feature. Other Mediterranean features could include an herb garden, a patio made from old bricks, or a micro-orchard.

Design Easy Desert Borders

This desert backyard is a series of garden beds and walkways. Gravel is used for a tidy, attractive look and moisture retention in times of drought. The gravel works on the walkway and in beds as an alternative to wood mulches. If the ground covers spill over the edge of the border into the path, hey, the more the merrier. The native plantings and many succulents provide a lush, colorful yet easy-going approach to having a large-scale yet simple garden plan.

Frame the Stone Steps

The planters framing the stone stairs make a dramatic entry point for the sprawling lawn and a shady seating destination beneath mature trees. The large stone planters are naturally aged by moss and weather, and the abundant flowers include plenty of low maintenance hosta. The large pavers are an easy way to create a patio or walkway below the raised level and leaving some grass in between creates a casual yet intentional look.

Plant a Line of Cacti

Michelle Boudreau Design lined the walls of this Palm Springs pool area with a row of cacti along one side, and a series of large white square planters on the other that gives the space a modern look.

Savor Sustainable Design

Nearly every design element in this beautiful off-grid desert property is intended to be sustainable and environmentally friendly. From the native plants to the moisture-retaining gravel to the rain barrels and clever use of found objects, this appealing landscape design shows respect for the planet and a resourceful sensibility.

Grow Your Garden Path

Emily Henderson Design landscaped the path leading to the backyard play area an effortless feel with grasses, bushes, and flowering plants of varying heights and varieties to give it a playful enchanted garden feel.

Create a Poolside Garden

Pools are great for cooling down in hot weather, but what about cooling down when you’re not in the water? A shady pavilion and terraced gardens alongside the stairs make this pool feature a comfortable and beautiful place to beat the heat. The cool-warm color palette of perennials is eye-catching and invokes both sun and water.

Turn Your Lawn Into a Patio

This modern and minimal design features a level lawn area the same shape as the pool, flanked by a simple bed with young birch trees. The simple lines are accented by the clean lines of the furniture chosen. The limited palette of white and brown with touches of deep green is anchored by the perennial beds with low-growing shrubs.

Add Levels of Seating

For homeowners who like to entertain, having more than one outdoor area for socializing can be a great way to maximize space. This design emphasizes seating areas over garden beds or plantings, with multiple levels and wide concrete stairs tying them all together. The sleek design of all three areas is minimal yet comfortable, with Adirondack chairs around the firepit area and comfortable seating on the lower patio, and a slightly more formal dining area on the upper level.

Go for a Gravel Garden

Dazey Den traded green grass for a sculptural gravel garden in the backyard of this desert home.

Add Vines to a Pergola or Arbor

The installation of a pergola or arbor can create an attractive and functional focal point for your garden. They can frame an entry way to a seating area or other destination, and also add shade to a sunny spot. This one has a trumpet vine, a beautiful but somewhat invasive flower that can be trained to behave itself if it has a strong structure to climb on. The cozy seating area on the wooden deck is surrounded by easy care hedges and perennials, and the large pavers offer some flexibility when designing walkways.

Define Your Space with Containers

Using containers is an easy way to create height and depth of space throughout your garden areas without too much effort. This desert garden has a variety of succulents and native plants in a variety of shapes, from creeping and curvy to tall and spiky, and the containers can be moved around at will to change the look. Graceful wire fence pieces create an open air look and protect the beds from wandering pets.

Plant Grasses Around a Firepit

Plant native grasses around your firepit area for a sense of privacy. A wood-burning metal fire dish is a simple solution if you don’t want to fuss with propane, gas or installing a fire pit. Plus, a fire feature creates the base for an instant seating area. The choice of grasses allows for a wide view of the gorgeous backdrops of mature trees and forest in the distance, and enjoying sunsets as day turns to night.

The black and white Adirondack chairs look sharp against the gray flagstone patio, and the perennial tufts of grass help define the space.

Create an Open Air “Room”

The willow structure creating the roof lets sunlight through but also creates abundant shade over this open-air patio room. This is essentially a pavilion with permeable roof over a deck that creates dramatic play of light and shadow and provides a cozy seating area in sunny weather. Using waterproof furniture and cushions protects in case some rain gets through.

Make Destination Points

A large backyard full of perennial beds just beckons meandering walks, and placing benches or other seating areas provides small destination points throughout. Mature trees provide dappled shade yet there’s plenty of sun for flowers. The curved edges of these beds (precisely what English gardeners would call “herbaceous borders”) have natural stone which adds to the woodland appeal of this year round garden landscape.

Attract Birds

Choose bird-friendly plants, then add a bird feeder and a birdhouse. Bird feeders are best placed near shrubs or small trees as many birds (cardinals, goldfinches and others) desire a bit of protective cover before they’ll venture nearby. This classic wooden birdhouse with tin roof has a vintage look perfect for a rambling outdoor garden. If you have multiple birdfeeding areas, be sure to consider placement in terms of seating and viewing vantage points so you can enjoy seeing the birds from indoors, or from your patio or other outdoor seating areas.

Create a Dramatic Entrance

This magnificent design features a rear entryway of stone steps and retaining walls with built-in perennial beds, providing not only practical access to the rear entrance but a marvelous garden space. The rectangular shapes of the pool, patio and levels of planters alongside the steps create a pleasing perpendicular shape with long lines contrasting with the tall shape of the house. The shrubs and planters add softer curving shapes for balance.

Rely on Containers for the Patio

Container gardens will dress up any patio, whether it be elaborate or simple. Containers of annuals can be easily moved around to change the shape or look of the space. Add some weatherproof furniture like this simple wicker sofa and chair, and a table, and you have a cozy seating area suitable for many uses.

Evoke a European Patio Style

This backyard is full of lush garden spots, from the full perennial beds and trees to the vine-covered screened porch and the enormous planters. This small seating area has European charm with its metal furniture and ornate stone planters with blooming hydrangeas, and plenty of privacy from nearby shrubs. The container with the large fern can be moved to create space for drinks or coffee.

Add Tropical Plants for Drama

The tropical plantings add color and drama to this southern home, with a flowering vine trained into a tree form, and large-leafed tropicals planted closely together for visual impact and a block of vibrant color.

Plant Perennial Beds by the Pool

Who says you can’t plant perennial beds next to your pool? These low maintenance grasses and other perennials in a range of pale greens accent the mostly white palette here. They also add some organic shapes and visual textures to the straight lines of the pool, buildings and furniture. A festive large umbrella provides some shade for this poolside oasis.

Create a California Vibe

This beachside bungalow has touches of Moroccan design (note the dramatic tiles in the stairs) and splashes of color from ceramic planters to enliven the white plaster walls. The plants are an attractive assortment of natives and tropicals suited to this southern California climate. These three dogs seem to love the spacious ease of the sandy walkway and the shady pockets created by lush perennials.